Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)

1 hour Professional Standards Training

Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)The CEP is a viable and valuable alternative for the SFA/group of schools/individual school(s) in high poverty areas as it reduces the administrative paperwork and cost of operating Child Nutrition Programs, while making it easier for children to receive meals at school.

Must participate in National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs.

CEP enables the qualified School Food Authority(SFA)/group of schools to serve meals at no charge for 4 successive school years, with a potential of a 5th grace year.

All students in the qualified SFA/group of schools receive meals at no charge.

CEP eliminates the SFA’s need to conduct eligibility certification and verification processes and simplifies the process of claiming reimbursable meals in participating schools.

How to Apply

• Applications must be based on April 1 enrollment and DCMP data (previous school year)

• Application and attachments can be found on CNKC website

• www.cn.nysed.gov

• Be on the lookout in the Spring for the new application!

How does an SFA/Group/Individual school(s) qualify?

Any school district can use this option if at least one of its schools has 40 percent or more students certified for free meals without application (called “Identified Students”)

The ISP is comprised of SNAP/Medicaid from the Direct Certification Matching Process(DCMP)/ NYSSIS & extensions, or Directly Certified through foster, homeless, migrant, runaway, Headstart, and Evenstart. A letter or list from a group home from students who are wards of the State may also be included.

HOW CAN AN SFA PARTICIPATE:

-By Individual School

With 40% or more Identified Students

-By Group

SFA’s may choose to group schools together any way they wish and calculate the Identified Student Percentage (ISP) for the group of schools as a whole, using combined enrollment and total number of Identified Students, as long as percentage is 40% or higher

No limit to number of groups

Within the same school district, some schools can participate individually and some can participate as a group

By entire SFA

All schools in the SFA participate as a single group with the same free claiming percentage as long as it is 40% or higher

Who are Identified Students?

Children certified for free meals without submitting a school meal application:Includes children who are directly certified (through data matching ) for free meals because they live in households that participate in the

- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

-Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Cash Assistance (TANF)

-Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)

-Medicaid (only if identified as receiving Medicaid benefits from the Direct Certification Matching Process)

-Includes children who are certified for free meals without application because they areIn Foster care

-In Headstart/Evenstart (Note : UPK programs are not categorically eligible and therefore not included in the ISP)

-Homeless

-Migrant

-Child living in group home as a ward of the state

Sample Coded Student Enrollment Record/ Master List

AS OF APRIL 1ST

Exhibit A

This data should be organized by qualifying school building within the SFA. The enrollment record/master list must include ALL students and be coded to indicate which students were identified to be eligible for the CEP based on: SNAP/Medicaid Direct Certification Matching Process (DCMP), extension of direct certification eligibility to other household member, foster, migrant, runaway, homeless, and Head Start/Even Start

Exhibit B

Complete the application utilizing the the Coded Enrollment List

The CEP Affirmation must be signed, scanned, and submitted with the application. All boxes must be checked to be approved for the CEP.

Application Process

Application is a 2-step submission process has been put in place to ensure that data is securely transferred using a private and safe data stream.

Step 1- Submit the following 2 documents to: childnutceo@nysed.gov

A. The CEP Application Form (excel spreadsheet)

must be “saved as” to your computer prior to completing. Once it has been completed and saved, you can attach it to the email.

B. The Affirmation Form (pdf form)

must be scanned and attached to the email or sent through the mail because it requires a signature. All boxes must be checked to be approved for the CEP.

Step 2- Once your SFA has submitted the CEP Application and Affirmation, you will be sent an e-mail which will detail the steps you must take to create an account and access the secure server to upload your enrollment records/master list.

Determining the Identified Student Percentage (ISP) and Reimbursement Reimbursements in free and paid categories only

Reimbursements based on the CEP multiplier ISP X 1.6 = Free Reimbursement Remainder of reimbursement in paid category SFA must provide additional funding from other

than federal funds if operations cannot be sustained on CEP reimbursements

Participating schools are guaranteed to receive the same reimbursement rate (or a higher one if the Identified Student Percentage increases) for 4 years

Meal Reimbursements with Community Eligibility

Percentage Identified Students

Percentage Free Percentage Paid

40% 64% 36%

45% 72% 28%

50% 80% 20%

55% 88% 12%

60% 96% 4%

65% 100% 0%

The reimbursement rate for both lunch and breakfast is determined by multiplying the percent of Identified Students by the CEP multiplier (currently 1.6). The resulting number is the percent of meals reimbursed at the “free” reimbursement rate, with the rest reimbursed at the “paid” rate.

USDA Estimator Tool

Should our school participate and what would be the financial impact?

• USDA’s Estimator Tool can help you access if CEP is your best option!

• The tool compares estimated federal reimbursement under CEP to federal reimbursement received under the standard operating procedures.

• Tool can be found on the CNKC website

Other situations to consider:Does your community think feeding all of the students is a priority?

Does your school have high unpaid meal debt?

Would Program participation increase if all students were able to eat at no charge?

Benefits of CEP Lessens administrative work

Schools no longer have to collect and verify school meal income applications and can focus on feeding children

Increases participation When all children can eat at no charge, stigma is

eliminated and more children participate

Improves efficiency Schools don’t have to collect fees or count each meal

served by category, simplifying implementation of service models that boost participation

Counting and Claiming Meals

• School counts only total reimbursable meals for breakfast and lunch

• Recommend counting by student name or POS ID to ensure accuracy of claims

• Must ensure no second meals claimed

• Edit Checks

• Non-reimbursable meals

Alternate Income Forms/Notifying Households

• Schools may collect family income information using an alternative collection form for other federal, stated, and local funding

• These activities may NOT be charged to Child Nutrition Program funds

• Modified Media Release and Parent Letter

This concludes Community Eligibility Provision

New York State Education Department

Child Nutrition Program Administration

(518)473-8781

CN@nysed.gov